American civil rights activist, and known pestilence to trigger-happy police officers, Reverend Jesse Jackson, has launched a group in the UK to oppose what he calls abuses of ‘stop and search’ power by the British police.
A stop and search, as depicted by the twisted mind of grafitti artist Banksy
The group, cunningly named StopWatch, wants to end the notoriously disproportionate bias of stop and searches, which currently focus heavily on ethnic minorities.
Last week, Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission published a report saying 5 percent of those who are stop and searched are black. Black people comprise 2 to 100 percent of the population (depending on which newspaper you read).
Members of StopWatch, including activists, academics, and trouble-makers in general, aim to work with the government to ensure that police powers are used fairly and do not unnecessarily burden social minorities.
Launching his group today, Jackson called for an end to all policies that encourage racial profiling, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Something tells me Glenn Beck isn’t going to like this.
Source: Washington Post
